Elizabeth (Betsy) Casper 1947 ~ 2016

SEELEY LAKE - Part-time Seeley Lake resident Elizabeth (Betsy) Casper lost a valiant struggle to advanced metastatic pancreatic cancer this summer, one of the most virulent and lethal forms of cancer. Early June symptoms took her to the clinic in Seeley Lake, then to Providence Hospital in Missoula, finally to the Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Despite all efforts she slipped from her earthly bonds only a few weeks later on July 27.

Betsy was born in 1947 in New Jersey and obtained her undergraduate education in English and German Literature and graduate studies in Germanic Languages. In 1969 she wed Lawrence (Larry) Casper and they began a life adventure that took them to Fairbanks, Alaska as well as Idaho Falls, Idaho, Minneapolis, Minn. and to summers at Seeley Lake starting in the summer of 1993. They spent the last 25 years in Madison, Wis. where Larry was with the University of Wisconsin in engineering research while Betsy built her career and clientele in tax advising, becoming certified by the U.S. Treasury Dept. to represent client tax cases before the IRS.

As one colleague described her, she was "an awesome resource and tax expert," always focused on her customers, many of whom were her clients for much of her nearly four decades of work and became family friends. Betsy's colleagues always appreciated her sparkling personality and sense of humor, and how "she always gave a hand before one would even think to ask for help."

Her biggest joy was raising three successful children: Erin, a nurse; Meghan, a classical musician and Jeremy, an engineer. In recent years her greatest love was her five grandchildren, it is hard to imagine a more devoted and generous grandmother.

She also loved spending recent summers building and enjoying their cabin in Seeley Lake after many years of camping here. Her special interests included birds, especially Whooping Cranes. She had begun serving as a citizen scientist in studies of Loons in Glacier National Park. Her other special interest in Montana was mining sapphires to create jewelry for family and friends.